After hanging up on Jeloscek, Hadley says: ''I'm not in the habit of being ridden roughshod over by lightweights like you, Lee Jeloscek.

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Influence ... Hadley pictured live on air.Credit:Peter Rae

''Move on with your life, Mr Jeloscek. You won't be on the program in any short time.''

While conservative talk radio has always prized anger above most other emotions, there is something different about the anger displayed by Hadley, the 58-year-old butcher's son who grew up in a Housing Commission fibro in Sydney's western suburbs and whose resumé´ leaps from taxi driver to football caller to millionaire broadcaster.

While some of his rivals ramp up the rage for their microphones, most seem to agree Hadley's anger is authentic. It is also personal. When Hadley downs tools his temper is said to grow. He is a bully, many former colleagues say, with few friends.

Until last week Hadley's bullying of junior colleagues had been just barely contained within the gossipy circles of the radio industry. Then on a recent Tuesday, the managing director of the Macquarie Radio Network, Rob Loewenthal, suspended his star presenter for reducing a website manager, Richard Palmer, to tears with a tirade of abuse.

Instead of accepting the punishment, Hadley called his friend John Singleton, the network's majority owner. The next day Hadley was back on air.

But there was a detail omitted from the news coverage last week - part of the backdrop to what The Daily Telegraph described as Hadley's ''uncharacterically [sic] humble'' apology for his bullying.

When Hadley summoned Palmer to his office on the morning of Thursday, February 7, the young staffer came prepared for a bollocking. Hadley had been angry that the digital-content manager was not uploading The Ray Hadley Morning Show's podcast fast enough onto the 2GB website.

What he didn't notice was that when he began abusing Palmer, the young man opened the recording application on his smartphone. Fairfax has not heard the recording and Palmer refuses to comment, but Loewenthal is understood to have been shocked when he heard it.

Further investigation has revealed Hadley's bullying of Palmer is far from an isolated event. Interviews with more than a dozen of Hadley's current and former colleagues portray him as a ''schoolyard bully'' who has been allowed to graduate to a workplace bully by bosses committed to keeping their star happy.

A single sentence on 2GB's website explains why so many managers have kowtowed to the star: ''He has rated number one in Sydney since 2004.''

When asked to be interviewed for this article, Singleton said: ''No time. No chance. I wish you well.''

Hadley also declined to be interviewed for this story.

Beyond Singleton, Hadley has cultivated a network of business leaders and politicians. In November 2011 the criminal lawyer Chris Murphy criticised the NSW Premier, Barry O'Farrell, on Twitter for being at Hadley's beck and call despite public evidence of Hadley's foul-mouthed invective.

During the Athens Olympics the host accidentally recorded himself describing a colleague as a ''f---ing spastic'' and a ''f---ing idiot''. Murphy was surprised when the Premier leapt to Hadley's defence. ''& you've never lost it - ever?!'' O'Farrell asked Murphy.

One 2GB staffer to make an official complaint about Hadley was Mark Kennedy, a station website moderator from 2006 to 2009.

On July 26, 2007, Kennedy emailed his manager, relating the ''extraordinary episode on Friday 23rd March this year''.

Hadley had not approved of a topic Kennedy had posted to the 2GB website and the host phoned to convey his feelings.

Kennedy records the exchange in an email to his manager: ''Shouting down the line, Hadley said, 'What the f--- do you think you're doing? Just who the f--- are you? I don't even know who the f--- you are. Who are you? You're a f---wit … You're nothing but a f---ing f---wit.''

''I realised later that the 11.30am call happened during Hadley's show,'' Kennedy says. ''It must have been a very long ad break.''

According to Kennedy, management ignored his complaint.

Fairfax Media spoke to the manager involved and he refused to comment. Calls and an email to Loewenthal were not returned.

Management protection of Hadley was clearer than ever last week when Singleton overruled his own managing director, Loewenthal, who had suspended Hadley for bullying. After three days of negative press, Hadley tearfully apologised for bullying Palmer.

Hadley reportedly told a boardroom full of 2GB colleagues that he would never again place himself above management.

But some of Hadley's former colleagues say he has been repeating such behaviour for years.

''This business of reducing kids to tears is quite common,'' says Mike Carlton, who worked with Hadley at 2UE in the 1990s.

''I know of two people, personally, who were reduced to tears by Hadley. They were young cadets in the newsroom at the time, on their first jobs barely out of university, and on the smallest pretext … Hadley just reduced them to tears with foul-mouthed invective and threats - you'll never work in this town again, your days in radio, I can have your job - all that stuff .''

Colleagues interviewed by Fairfax have described Hadley's anger in two ways: it is uncontrollable and no incident is too minor to provoke it.

''I've seen him in those rages,'' Carlton says. ''The eyes are popping out of his head, his lips are foam flecked. I think he quite seriously loses all control of himself.''

Hadley is known to cower when confronted, Carlton says. ''There was one fabulous time when he picked on a slightly older journalist … He did the full 'you'll never work in this town again' … And the bloke put up with it, he didn't burst into tears and he said: 'Are you finished?' Hadley said: 'Naaa' … 'All right then,' the journalist said, 'Let's settle it outside.' Hadley backed up like an Arab tank in the Yom Kippur War.''

Carlton said he did not witness the incident but the story has been verified by another 2UE staffer who worked there at the time.

It is understood to be extremely rare for an underling to stand up to Hadley or for anyone to lodge an official complaint.

When the public hears about Hadley's anger it is usually by way of a sympathetic article in which the author suggests there is a higher purpose to Hadley's temper.

A 2011 profile in The Australian quotes former 2UE staffer Todd Hayward describing the broadcaster as ''a perfectionist who didn't restrict his expectations to his own performance''. According to Hayward, Hadley was ''generally right, but his manner could offend those unprepared for sometimes brutal feedback''.

One long-time 2GB colleague of Hadley's, who asked not to be named, agreed with Hayward's assessment. ''Apart from the very, very rare blow-up that he's had with me, I've actually never really had a problem with him.

''In my opinion he's a hard arse like everyone else in the industry … but more often than not if there's ever been a criticism there's usually been a point to it.''

Hadley keeps a loyal team around him and even his enemies acknowledge his rare talents as a broadcaster. Hadley understands the crowd and as a football caller he knows how to ride it. He continues to top the ratings and rake in millions of advertising dollars for Singleton.

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Hadley's apology on February 15 was described by management as a ''fresh start''.